Slash

An excellent piece by Andy Comfort of BBC Radio Humberside in Press Gazette pointed to a remarkable statistic - that there are 2.5 million listeners to BBC local radio in England who use NO OTHER BBC SERVICE.  This probably is misleading (as pointed out to me by a proper media journalist).  2.5 million looks like the so-called "solus" figure - people who listen to no other BBC Radio Station.

So here's a re-calc of my previous farmyard economics. Some of these 2.5m listeners will be over 75, and some will be living with their families; let's estimate that 1m pay a licence fee.  That generates £145.5m income for Auntie.  17% of each licence is spent on radio - that's £24.7m from these local-radio-only listeners. Use that to defray 20% cuts in local radio. So instead of seeking £29.5m in total from the 40 stations, make it a round £5m.